Paphos People

We have just been told by our local council that from September we will have 4 wheelie bins - one black, green, grey and blue !! Now I'm all for recycling and am trying to do my bit by not using carrier bags any more etc but my question is where do you put the damned things. Not only are they large but ugly as well. We are quite lucky as we have a bit of space round the side of the house we don't use so we can put them out of sight there but not everyone has that luxury. So it just got me wondering what other people in the UK have for their recycling as I know all boroughs are different and also is there any recycling policy in Cyprus or does nobody really bother there ?

Julie x

Hi! Julie,

Our council only collects paper, cans, glass and garden waste.

Anything else I take to Sainsbury's or Tesco as they will take pretty much anything.

As far as i'm aware in Paphos you can only recycle cans (for kids) unless anyone else knows differently.

Jackie

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If it has tyres or testicals you are going to have problems with it!

We have no side space at our house, we blocked it in to keep the burglars out !
We store two large wheelie bins in the garage along with a blue box for glass and cans and a blue bag for paper and a white large bag for cardboard.
Needless to say cars can not get into garage.
Bins are emptied fortnightly ie brown bin,white bag one week the rest the next. I've lost count of the times I have to go to the council skip with rubbish cos the bins are full up days before they are due to be emptied.
Don't know what the situation is in Cyprus but do know the bins are emptied very regularly cos of the heat.
Gary

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So close yet so far away

We have three bins in Perthshire - blue for papers collected once a month, brown for garden waste collected two weekly and green for everything else collected every week.
We don't have to collect cardboard or glass but we do have collection points in the village for this.

I did read quite recently about recycling in Cyprus and I'm sure at some point it will have to come, but I can't remember details....at least their thinking about it

Jan

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ALWAYS MOVE FORWARD

Here in Kirklees we don't have as many bins as you Julie, not yet anyway.

We have a green bin for cardboard, paper, and recyclable plastic, (although most of our plastic cannot be recycled in UK and has to be shipped to China!), a grey bin for household waste, and a green box for glass. For garden waste people are strongly encouraged to compost, the alternative is to phone the council to arrange collection, or take it to the tip yourself.

It was strange the other week in Paphos not sorting out the rubbish, as it has now become second nature. It all still goes in one bin, although I did put glass bottles and plastic bottles in different bags!

The bin for our apartment block was emptied twice in the week that we were there.

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Pam

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans

Oh Yes Pam, I forgot tomention Compost. The Council urge you to compost and pay for a bin. What they don't tell you is that as soon as you start composting you atttract rats.
In my opinion/experience do not compost.
Gary

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So close yet so far away

It's weird how every council is different - we have a green wheelie just for garden waste. Surely a national recycling policy would be better where the whole country does the same

Julie x

Been composting with not one but two bins for 2 years now and not had a problem with rats!

All raw kitchen waste as well as lawn clippings and other garden waste goes in, but no cooked food. If you were to put cooked food and bread etc in, then I would imagine that would attract rats. Although it is said that you are never more that a few feet from a rat in any built up area!

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Pam

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans

Yet another of the delights of living in Cyprus, where the lunatics are not running the asylum. We pay CY£140 a year (per year - NOT pcm) in domestic rates and for that we get two bin collections a week. No sorting - it all goes in one wheelie bin. Any other items you need to get rid of...leave it out alongside the wheelie bin and it gets taken away, no questions asked.

Thank goodness our life out here is not tarnished by council jobsworths in hi-vis jackets, issuing £200 fines simply because your wheelie bin lid won't quite shut, or because you inadvertently put a window envelope in with the recyclable paper. Lloyd

When we were in uk we got one small green box clear glass paper and mags that was it the rest we had to take to the tip ourselves we used to put the shreded paper in a bin bag and they would empty it in to the machine but then they were told they couldn't do that so they left it on the pavement still in the bag so i put the bag in the wheelie bin it still got taken but not re-cycled. Oh and that little lot used to cost around a grand a year what a differance eh.

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To finish first, first you have to finish

In Fife we have a Black bin for nonrecycleable waste collected fortnightly, a blue bin for paper only, and a brown bin for garden waste both collected fortnightly between the black bin collections.

They are all large, however they are disproportionate in size. Although we have a largeish garden, we would never fill the broon bin, and the only time I have ever filled the blue bin is when getting ready to move and doing a mega clear out, however the black bin is bursting every week. This means that on a sunday noght, I can be seen sneaking along the bins in our street, topping others up with my extra bags!!!

Luckily we only have the one and a half children at home now, but when all 8 were home we would have needed 3 bins.

The current system also means several trips to the amenity skip (OOOHHHH, we used to call it the dump) every month, which does not help the carbon footprint with diesel use, also the council must have spent hundreds of thousands building the site to its current luxurious state. There is workers porta palaces where they sit themselves down and do nothing to help the population, not a please, or can I help you missus.... they are over paid, under worked, under tasked and pig ignorant..

The system has clearly been thrown together by a cobbler without consulting peoples needs, the areas needs or expectations. Another case of the tail wagging the dog!!!

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

Tanny did exactly the same thing the week before we moved out evrything went in the bin and also all the neighbours the bin men must have all had hernias that week.

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To finish first, first you have to finish

Glad you don't live near us Tanny.

Our lovely next door neighbour decided that rather than put his garden waste where it should have gone - in his own compost bin (which he never bothered to request from the council) - that he would dump his grass clippings in our grey household waste bin. One phone call to the council, and the following week his grass clippings were removed from his bin by the binmen, and dumped on his nice block paved drive, with a nice big sticker put on his bin telling him what he can and cannot put in the bin.

The system works if everyone uses it, every EU country has recycling targets to meet, we should all try and do our bit.

Cyprus will surely have to look at some form of waste recycling soon as a requirement of the EU. I noticed there were plenty of blue plastic bags blowing around the sea caves area when we were there a couple of weeks ago.

Brian

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An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Pam, we never put cooked food in the compost bin !
We are only about 150 yds away from allotments and rats are definately attracted to compost bins where we live.

Gary

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So close yet so far away

Brian, are the blue plastic bags not to protect the Banana palms on the plantations, I am sure Ive seen them there .

Ive just come back from Perth and Kinross council area, where everyone has Black bins of a standard size, however they have differently coloured lids, the first house I was at had 5 with different colours on. I didnt ask what each was for as I dont think the owner knew. The are clearly a menace trying to keep tidy, and could be dangerous in a small garden with children.

I wonder if there are any brackets or similar that can be used to fix them securely in place??

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

We recycle all the ususal waste such as paper, glass, tin cans and general waste in the bins provided by our council.

We also have a large food bin that is kept outside and a small food caddy for indoors.
This is then collected on a weekly basis.

Great idea.

Gilly

Its a pity food waste cannot be collected more frequently (even if from a central point) to be processed for animal feed/ fretilizer etc.

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Straight talking, no Gimmicks.

Live your dreams.

Thought it was great last night watching the news, Gordon Brown telling everyone to waste less food, then he sits down at the G8 summit to an eight course banquet

He tells us we can save £420 per year by not wasting food, not in this house, we seldom have any food waste........ I end up eating it all

Brian

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An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.